Geek News Central is the technical site for Geeks. We Spin tech for the common man. With a Family of Tech Shows and Content.


Tag: Samsung

Samsung SmartCam IP Camera

Posted by Alan Buckingham at 12:47 AM on February 8, 2012

If you are in the market for a home surveillance camera, or IP camera as they are also known, then Samsung has a new one that is worth checking out.  Last month at the Consumer Electronics Show is Las Vegas, Jeffery Powers stopped by the Samsung booth to get a look at the newest addition to their camera family.

The new camera is called the Smartcam and it’s designed to keep an eye on your home while you are away.  The camera is tiny and dead simple to set up.  Simply push a button on the camera and one on your router and you should be up and running.  While it isn’t said in the interview below, we will assume that this means the “WPS” button, which all modern routers and extenders come with.  The camera uses motion-detection and audio-detection to activate it and will send you an alert if it has been activated.  In addition, it will record what it picks up to a personal, password-protected YouTube account.  Features include night-vision up to 15 feet, free apps for all mobile platforms, and an always-on setting to allow you to view it anytime, even when it hasn’t picked up activity.

The Samsung SmartCam will be available this March for $149.99.  Keep an eye out for it at the Samsung site, and check out the video below to get a first look at it.

Interview by Jeffrey Powers of The Geekazine.

Sponsored by:
GoDaddy.com get 25% off 1 year 4GH Web Hosting use Promo Code CES2
GoToMyPC access your computer Free for 30 Days!
Callisto.fm Real Time Media Analytics Beta Signup
PlayPlay

Podcast (specmedia): Play in new window | Download | Embed

Tags: , , , ,

Posted in Accessory, ces

Comments No Comments

Samsung Reveals New Chromebook and Chromebox

Posted by Alan Buckingham at 5:55 PM on January 13, 2012

The Google Chrome operating system has been available for almost a year with lots of updates to the OS, but very little traction in the market.  Google made it prominent by giving away thousands of CR-48 laptops, but when the final version was released there were only two hardware makers on board – Samsung and Acer.  Sadly that hasn’t changed since the release, and it didn’t change at CES , but there was some Chrome OS news there.

Samsung announced two new additions to the Chrome world – one is a new notebook, but the other is the first Chrome desktop computer, or “Chromebox”.  The Series 5 notebook has been updated to include 2 GB of RAM (which it already had – not sure if the RAM type changed), a 16 GB SSD (it previously had a 16 GB Serial ATA), and a slightly faster CPU.  Meanwhile, the Chromebox is considered a Series 3 product, and it comes with six USB ports, a DVI port, 2 Display Link ports, an ethernet jack, and is currently running Chrome 17.0.963.15.  It’s also rumored to have a dual-core processor under the hood, along with 2 GB of RAM, and 16 GB SSD.  The video below gives a good idea of what both new products look like.

Video Source: BetaNews

Tags: , , , ,

Posted in Chrome OS, google

Comments 2 Comments

Griffin Gets Gadgets On The Go

Posted by Andrew at 1:35 AM on January 13, 2012

Griffin has a great range of accessories for all kinds of smartphones, MP3 players and tablets, so it’s no surprise that they’ve a few additions to their product range here at CES. This year they’re announcing a two in-car mounts, some power solutions and a mount for air travellers.

First up, if you have a car that has an aux port (3.5 mm socket), then the WindowsSeat 3 Handsfree is the windshield or dashboard mount for your vehicle. It comes with combined aux cable and microphone that that can be used to make handsfree phone calls and stream music/navigation commands through the car speakers. WindowSeat’s mounting cradle holds iPods or iPhones in most shell- or skin-type cases, as well as a similar sized MP3 players and smartphones, including popular models from BlackBerry, HTC, Motorola, and Samsung. Price is $39.99 and available now.

Griffin AirCurve

If you don’t have  an aux jack, the AirCurve Window Mount is the alternative. This windshield mount is designed as an acoustic amplifier which can raise the volume by as much as 25 dB without any batteries or cables. Designed for the iPhone 4 / 4S, simply put the smartphone in speakerphone mode and chat away. Price is also $39.99 and available now.

Griffin’s PowerBlock range has been updated with new models –  PowerBlock Reserve, $59.99, a wall charger for iPod and iPhone that can be plugged into any AC wall outlet to provide a quick boost of power that also has a built-in rechargeable 2,000 mAh lithium-ion battery pack for charging on the go. The PowerBlock Reserve Universal, $49.99, is the same concept but quickly charges any USB device. Both models charge their own batteries at the same time they’re charging connected devices, which is often not the case with competing models. A row of LEDs serve as a power gauge, indicating how much charge is left.

Finally, Griffin is bringing a new product to the market in Q2 of 2012 with a Tray Table Latch Mount. Specifically for the air and rail traveller, the mount is designed to be compatible with 90% of the world’s airline and commuter rail tray table latches and holds your eReader, tablet or smartphone at eye level for comfortable viewing. Very handy.

Pop round to Griffin in North Hall, Booth 5212 at CES 2012 in Las Vegas to see all their latest goodies or you can checked out the dedicated CES section of their website.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in Accessory, Android, Apple, automotive, ces, ebook, HTC, iPhone, ipod, MP3, smartphone, tablet, travel accessories, USB

Comments Comments Off

Samsung’s Smart Cameras

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 10:31 PM on January 9, 2012

DV300F There are more than 2.5 million digital photographers in the world and over one half of them share their photos online. Once upon a time in order to share your photos you would have connect your camera to your computer by a usb cable, download your photos from your camera to your computer. Finally after you did all that you could then upload them to your favorite sharing site. No more, now with Samsung Smart Cameras you can share to your favorite social sites or upload to your computer wirelessly using WiFi. You can also use Auto Backup to automatically transfers pictures to your home computer. By using customized back-up options you are ensured that you only share what you want. Smart Auto is also available giving you the right setting no matter the conditions, for the best results every time.

Samsung Smart Camera wireless line consist of five cameras and camcorders. At the low-end is the ST200F. The ST200F allows you to back up your computer by way of AutoSharing or the cloud using Samsung’s Allshare® or Microsoft’s SkyDrive®. The ST200F can take pictures up to 780/25p. It is beautiful and slim easy to slip into a pocket ready to use at anytime. If you want something with a little more power and love taking self portraits then the DV300F is for you. This is a 16 megapixel with a 5x lens camera. It has both a front and rear LCDs. The front LCD allows for great self portraits. Using the social sharing feature you can upload your photos directly to Youtube or Facebook. At the high-end of the line is the WB850F travel camera. It takes pictures up to 1080/30p and 1080i for scenery shots. It has GPS and Live Landmark installed, so you always know where you took that picture. It has a crystal clear 3.0 VGA AMOLED screen with Bsi CMOS sensor technology to reduce noise and distortion. It is great for travelogues who can upload their best travel photos directly to Facebook, Photobucket or Picasa.

WB850

The Samsung Smart Camera line is a camera for todays social world. As Mr Myoung Sup Han, Senior Vice President and Head of the Digital Imaging Business, Samsung Electronic said, “The ability to instantly share, securely save and automatically back-up images on the go make our newest line-up of SMART cameras must-haves for a whole range of photographers.”  If you are ready to move up from the camera on your phone, then your are ready for a Samsung Smart Camera. Samsung will be at CES 2012 showing off their products.

Tags: , ,

Posted in Information, Photography

Comments 1 Comment

Samsung Acquires Sony’s Stake in S-LCD for $939 million

Posted by Jeffrey Powers at 9:43 AM on December 26, 2011
Sony

Sony

Back in 2004, Samsung and Sony joined together to produce Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD). More than TV’s and computer monitors, these LCD’s were also in phones, cars, appliances and other items needing a display. Two months after Sony announced it was reorganizing due to a 1.2 billion dollar loss, Sony has sold their part in the LCD venture for $939 million (1.08 trillion Korean won).

In the agreement, Samsung will acquire all of Sony’s shares (329,999,999) of the S-LCD Corporation. They will still cooperate in engineering efforts on LCD panel technology.

Transaction close date is expected on 1/19/2012

Sony Press Release

Samsung Press Release

Tags: , , , , ,

Posted in Sony

Comments Comments Off

O2 Offers 12 Month Smartphone Lease

Posted by Andrew at 6:25 PM on December 12, 2011

O2 LogoIn a change to the mobile phone contract status quo, UK mobile telco O2 has announced a 12 month smartphone leasing service. For £55 per month, you get a 16 GB smartphone, 750 minutes, unlimited text, a paltry 500 MB of data and insurance. Allegedly unique in the UK market, both consumers and business will be able to take advantage of O2 Lease.

If you are wondering what the difference is between a 12 month lease and 12 month contract, it’s simply that the smartphone doesn’t belong to you and must be returned in reasonable condition at the end of the lease. That’s why insurance is included in the cost of the lease so that the smartphone can be replaced in the event of damage or loss.

O2 extols the benefits of a 12 month lease, tying it into the upgrade cycles of the smartphone models and giving you the latest model without a long contract. The choice of smartphone models isn’t mentioned but O2 offers all the premium smartphones – Apple iPhone 4S, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Nokia Lumia 800 and Blackberry Torch. 32GB models cost an extra £10 per month. Update – O2 Lease is specifically mentioned against the iPhone 4S here.

If you really want the latest phone and you’re a big talker or texter, this scheme might be worth considering but the tiny data allowance really makes it all a bit of a farce. My monthly data usage is between 600-800 MB and I don’t think that I’m a particularly heavy user. Yes, I might download the odd podcast but it’s mostly email, web browsing, Twitter and RSS feeds.

Personally, I tend to buy my smartphones SIM-free as there are far better tariffs out there and you can easily sell the smartphone after 12 months to part-fund your next purchase. Do the maths for yourself and see what works for you.

The full press release is here.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Posted in Android, Apple, blackberry, iOS, iPhone, smartphone

Comments Comments Off

Price of Chromebook Drops. Will You Buy it Now?

Posted by Jeffrey Powers at 1:00 PM on November 21, 2011
Chromebook Display at Google Places Event

Chromebook Display at Google Places Event

Google announced they are dropping the price of the Chromebook by 30%. Some Chromebooks will be as low as $299. But questions still arise if a Chromebook is in your holiday wish list, when you can get a Kindle Fire, nook Color for less. Even the iPad could be in more stockings than the ultra-portable laptop.

Chromebook came out back in June as Google’s answer to a PC that didn’t have a complicated OS to it. You would load the Chromebook up to a Chrome browser; inside, all your applications would be in the cloud and the data you create would also mostly reside in a cloud drive. However, if you were in a 3G deadspot or didn’t have Wifi, then your work would be rather limited.

Competing with a Tablet

Chromebook’s price drop is pretty much an attempt to counter the prices of the Kindle Fire and nook color tablets, which debuted to the general public last week at $199 and $249 respectively. The tablet – which you could connect a bluetooth keyboard and mouse – could technically become a more functional notebook than a Chromebook itself. And with prices at $100 lower than the device,  will a Samsung or Acer Chromebook even be in your holiday purchase radar?

What is Chromebook’s Market?

Google Chair at SF Airport

Google Chair at SF Airport

Chromebook has to figure out where their niche is going to be. Maybe as a laptop for the kids, or a machine you can keep in the kitchen to call up recipes or as a kiosk in a public place? Back in September, I saw the Chromebook lounge in the San Francisco Airport. Those kiosks would be great for people that have hours to wait but don’t have a computer to check their Facebook profiles or email on.

Remember when the Netbook was a popular item two years ago? What happened to that? The answer is the netbook disappeared fast. You can still get a netbook, but just like the Chromebook, why should you spend $300 or more for a device that is the same speed and power as a Kindle Fire or nook Color?

So now we can start to see the impact of these two new tablets are bringing to the holiday shopping season. Chromebook has to compete with something more compact and useable. Google has not released any data regarding Chromebooks sold, but a DigiTimes report (premium content site) says it all:

“In June 2011, Acer and Samsung launched their Chromebooks ahead of other PC brand vendors, but by the end of July, Acer had reportedly only sold 5,000 units and Samsung was said to have had even lower sales than Acer, according to sources from the PC industry.”

What does that mean to Chromebook? Simply: It’s time to drop prices and hope the Chromebook will sell well in Q4.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in Chrome

Comments Comments Off

TCS #6 The Show is Finally Back

Posted by geeknews at 6:11 PM on November 13, 2011

After weeks of no success, I finally found a replacement power supply for the Samsung Chrome Book. I have a link to the only one I know that is available in the show notes below. It is great to be back and I share with you some great tips. In a complete shocker I find out that you now can do a Hangout with your Google Chromebook. This was not possible just a few weeks ago so it is nice to see that Google has this functionality ready for us.

The following Sponsor keeps The Chrome Show running your support of them is greatly appreciated!
: New GoDaddy Special Get One Today!

Subscribe Today: Video
Download the Show File

Follow @geeknews on Twitter
Geek News Central Facebook Page
Show Hotline 24/7 1-619-342-7365 or e-mail chromeshow@gmail.com

Apps Covered:
LastPass
XMarks
ADBlocks
Google+ Hangouts Native Chromebook Support
Samsung Chrome Book Power Supply Replacement!

Tags: , , ,

Posted in Chrome Show

Comments 1 Comment

Android Leads UK Smartphone Race

Posted by Andrew at 1:40 PM on November 1, 2011

Android LogoIn the UK, Android is beginning to dominate the smartphone space, with 50% of handsets sold in the last quarter running Android. RIM (Blackberry) and Apple are almost level pegging on 22% and 18% and with half of UK adults now owning a smartphone, Android has an impressive lead.

Breaking the Android figures down, HTC is the top dog, with nearly 45% of Android handsets sold. Samsung is picking up the pace at 38% but Sony Ericsson is the big loser, falling to 8.5% of the Android market.

Surprisingly, this means that HTC, Samsung, RIM and Apple are each taking about a quarter of the market. Compared with mindshare that Apple generally has and the dominance in the tablet market, it’s clear that the iPhone is under performing.

Personally, I would agree with the figures. Looking round the office, Android phones are definitely in the majority followed by iPhones and Blackberries. I think Blackberries are popular with younger people as both my nephews have that brand of phone. The breakdown of the Android shares also rings true. This time last year, it would have been exclusively HTC smartphones but now there are quite a few people sporting Samsung devices.

The research was carried out by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech over the past 12 weeks. To be fair, this probably means that iPhone sales were down as people waited for new model but there’s no doubt that Android is the no.1 smartphone OS in the UK.

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in Android, Apple, blackberry, HTC, iOS, IPAD, iPhone, Operating Systems, RIM, smartphone, Sony

Comments 5 Comments

Sony TV is Splitting to Three – LCD, Outsourcing, Next Generation TV

Posted by Jeffrey Powers at 11:09 AM on October 31, 2011
Sony

Sony

Sony announced that starting tomorrow, they will be re-organizing their TV division into three parts. The LCD TV, outsourcing, and next generation TV divisions. The idea is to better define the market to make better TVs.

Sony missed their July-September results last Wednesday, and analysts outlook is going to be under 200 bn yen (2.63 billion). It’s an eighth annual loss, Reuters reports.

Sony and Samsung Joint Venture in Jeopardy?

The LCD division is a joint venture with Samsung. As Market Watch is reporting, Sony might end this alliance that they had since 2004. Since LCD is changing to LED technologies, it is unknown how this partnership will stay fruitful.

Outsourcing Project

The outsourcing division is just that – certain TV parts are outsourced to reduce production costs. Sony began outsourcing in 2009 – which was odd for the electronics giant to do.  By outsourcing, they were able to compact their factories to bring profits up.

Next generation TV division researches the current trends of the TV. From Over the Top Television standards, to screen resolutions, OLED technology and sound breakthroughs.

Sony and Google TV

Of course, earlier in the week, Google announced upgrades to Google TV (which Sony produces for televisions and Blu-Ray players). With a better interface and the additional Android market, it breathes new life into the TV. While last years launch was not heralded, Google hopes this revamp will get Google TV in the right direction. Therefore, Sony could see a good bump in the market.

Whether this split will provide stability is to be seen. The division shakeup will happen on November 1st.

 

Tags: , , , , ,

Posted in Information

Comments Comments Off

« Older Entries